(Note: It’s probably best to look at this post AFTER you’ve eaten a meal!!!!)

It’s been said for ages that the way to a man’s heart— or a woman’s, for that matter — is through the stomach.

In that spirit, we set out with visiting fellow blogger and dear friend Jen of Random Acts of Writing to Oriental Flavor, the one and only dim sum restaurant in nearby Amherst. Jen had never had dim sum before, so we were tickled to be able to to introduce her to the delicious little snacks that are served as dim sum, a meal also known as yum cha.

(The literal meaning of dim sum is given by Wikipedia as “touching the heart”, as it was originally just a snack, not a full meal. My own personal translation of yum cha is yummy tea meal, although an actual Chinese-speaker would probably disagree.)

Here’s how our yummy tea meal touched our hearts that day, as Jen experienced it for the first time:

Chopsticks and a pot of jasmine tea, and we got down down to business, first plate:

Har gow, Crystal Shrimp Dumplings glistening in their translucent ivory rice flour wrappers around a chopped shrimp filling. Next came fried shrimp balls, same shrimp but very different taste:

and with them came pork shu mai:

In the twinkling of an eye, the view changes:

Yum Cha! Followed by crepes of tofu skin rolled around a pork, shrimp, and shiitake mushroom following:

I’m getting hungry all over again! But however willing the spirit, sooner or later the flesh has had enough. And so it was for us. Room enough for two desserts:

We shared a pair of omochi sticky rice balls wrapped around sweet lotus paste, and fried with sesame seeds. Then, for the grand finale:

Tender egg tarts in flaky pastry. We groaned a little, but polished them off anyway. And here are the happy friends, bellies full, hearts touched, smiling from ear to ear in our first ever selfie: